वितर्कविचारानन्दास्मितानुगमात्

Aphorisms of Patanjali 

पातञ्जल योगसूत्र

Samadhipad -17-18-19

समाधिपाद १७-१८-१९

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The next three Aphorisms 17-18-19 describe the state of the mind of the insentient (जड) and the sentient beings respectively.

The insentient are wholly the Prakriti / प्रकृति, where the consciousness is still latent and has to manifest, and the words 'one and the other' just don't apply, the sentient beings (the individual living organisms) are those where the consciousness has a sprout that is to manifest gradually evolves and grows up.

वितर्कविचारानन्दास्मितानुगमात् सम्प्रज्ञातः।।१७।।

So this sprout of individuality that arises in an organism has a memory of being itself. This very memory or the information is also the ego (अस्मिता / asmitA). And with this as the foundation, with further accumulation of the memory, this becomes strong. This is what is 'consciousness', -the essence of 'the known'. 

The various stages which this consciousness goes through respectively in that order are :

वितर्क-विचार-आनन्द-अस्मिता-अनुगमात् सम्प्रज्ञातः।।

At the very beginning, in the very first stage, there is :

The Sense of just being (अहम् / अहं) only. Then this becomes the sense of "I am" only -- I am without the other.

This is precisely the अस्मिता / अहंकार / asmitA.

So अहम् / अहं / is verily the Self Unlimited and  Undivided Whole. The English word the I'm, 'Ahem', the 'I am' is but सजात / सज्ञात / अपभ्रंश or the cognate of this  अहम् / अहं.

Interestingly, there is similar cognate in the Urdu as अहम, synonymous with "chief or the main".

Then with this sense of being the Self, there comes the 'other'

In the classical language as is described as :

अहं (I) and इदं (this or it, the इतरं / इतरः / other).

This bifurcation is precisely the "वितर्क", the differentiation. 

This acceptance of the 'other' turns into the conflict - "विचार", the Thought / vritti / वृत्ति.

The thought / vritti / वृत्ति is of the five kinds as has been already described :

वृत्तयः पञ्चतय्यः क्लिष्टाक्लिष्टाः।।

प्रमाणविपर्ययविकल्पनिद्रास्मृतयः।।

The last is स्मृति - memory.

And before memory, there is निद्रा - sleep. 

In sleep the individual-self enjoys the state of just being without the 'other'. Therefore it is called the आनन्दमय कोष / the blissful sheath.

Therefore the ignorance persists during this sleep-vritti / निद्रा-वृत्ति as well.

These five stages in consciousness together are called 'सम्प्रज्ञातः' / 'the known'.

विरामप्रत्ययाभ्यासपूर्वः संस्कारशेषोऽन्यः।।१८।।

(विराम-प्रत्यय-अभ्यास-पूर्वः संस्कारशेषः अन्यः।।)

This Aphorism deals with the stage prior to practising the Yoga.

विराम-प्रत्यय - the 'effort' that is done to stop the flow of vritti / वृत्ति. Such an individual follows the way of Insentient-Prakriti / जड-प्रकृति.

What happens of them? 

This has been pointed out in the following  Aphorism 19 : 

भवप्रत्ययो विदेहप्रकृतिलयानाम्।।१९।।

(भवप्रत्ययः विदेह-प्रकृतिलयानाम्।।)

Those who die without having discovered the 'Self', dissolve in the Prakriti / प्रकृति.

भवप्रत्ययः  denotes the incarnation in another next body, according to the accumulated memory ( संस्कार / samskAra) .

संस्कारशेषः अन्यः points out, how after the death, individuals are born again in another body according to their memory retained by them.

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